Etymologies

Middle English purlewe, piece of land on the edge of a forest, probably alteration (influenced by Old French lieu, place) of porale, purale, royal perambulation, from Old French porale, from poraler, to traverse : por-, forth (from Latin prō-; see pro-1) + aler, aller, to go; see alley1.

(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

From Anglo-Norman puralee, puralé et al. (Wiktionary)

Examples

It is remarkable that the term purlieu is never once mentioned in this long roll of parchment.

Stuck with his family in a purlieu of Rome densely populated by other displaced Jews, he immerses himself in his memories, which include seeing his father murdered by Cossacks and, just as hauntingly, informing on his cousin for Zionist activity.

We were often crossing it on one errand or other, but now we were especially going to see the gipsy quarter of Seville, which disputes with that of Granada the infamy of the loathsomest purlieu imaginable.

"So, while the crew investigated the boat and gauged the level of its picturesqueness, I haunted the less salubrious purlieus of the city, peeping in at doorways where dozens of sweating people sat entranced by 'Pane, Pane, Beijo, Beijo' or 'Louco Amor' in rooms not ten feet square, peering through the gate at the exclusive country club, so exclusive indeed that it appeared to be derelict, always coming back to the market, where it seemed to me I could see athwart the economic reality of life in the interior."- 'The São Francisco', Germaine Greer in The Madwoman's Underclothes.